As a cameraman, I've filmed wildlife all over the planet,
but there are limits to where I can go.
She's returned to the place that I can't follow her.
So in this series, it's the animals that are doing the filming,
to reveal the secret side of their lives
we've never seen before.
That's so cool.
That is lovely.
Over the years, we've designed pioneering mini-cameras for a huge
range of animals.
It's like a job interview.
Everything is made to measure.
Just figuring out what her new bit of bling is.
And we've teamed up with scientists who want to see the world
from an animal's perspective,
to learn about the challenges they face,
and help protect them in the future.
She is potentially showing us parts of the ocean that no-one
has seen before.
Our unconventional film crew reveal surprising behaviour...
Oh, there's another one!
..and help us help them.
Woohoo!
Couldn't be happier than that.
In this special episode,
we're diving underwater,
where our cameras will help answer scientists' crucial questions
about some of the most remarkable animals in the ocean.
What DO turtles get up to at sea?
Can sharks help protect coral reefs?
How do gannets find their food?
And how do seal pups survive after being abandoned by their mother?
This is their world,
their footage and their story.
My first adventure starts here...
..Cape Verde.
A cluster of tropical islands off the west coast of Africa.
I'm on Sal -
one of the driest and most barren.
This really is a true desert island.
First impressions as a wildlife cameraman looking around,
there aren't that many wild animals.
But for just a few months each summer, the sandy beaches
in the south where I'm heading are inundated by
a very, very special reptile -
the loggerhead turtle.
Loggerheads can weigh twice as much as an adult human
and live for up to 50 years.
They spend their lives traversing the world's oceans all on their own,
travelling thousands of kilometres between feeding grounds.
Because they spend so much time in the open ocean,
extremely little is known about them.
So what do these creatures do at sea?
Hopefully our cameras will find out.
Biologists Albert Taxonera and Christophe Eizaguirre
have been studying the loggerheads on Sal for the past decade.
What we are trying to do is to learn more about the conservation status
of these animals, learn more about them, so we can actually
protect them better.
Cape Verde hosts one of the world's largest populations
of nesting loggerheads.
During the breeding season,
up to 7,000 females return to Sal's beaches,
where they were born.
Each can lay up to six clutches of 80 eggs.
It's widely believed that during their nesting season,
loggerheads will not feed for five months.
But is this actually true?
Do turtles feed in the surrounding ocean or not?
Albert and Christophe need to use our cameras to find the answer.
I've been working in Cape Verde for ten years,
and for almost as long as this time
we have the speculation that turtles feed locally.
So why is it important to know if they're feeding?
The beaches of Sal are already protected to safeguard the turtles.
But the surrounding coral reefs are not.
So if the turtles are feeding here,
the marine ecosystem needs protecting, too.
If we understand what they do, we can always push
for better conservation strategies.
But to safeguard the waters, first they need evidence -
something I hope our cameras can help with.
This morning, I'm heading a few kilometres offshore
with Albert, to a reef location where he suspects the turtles
could be feeding.
Seeing the turtles on the beaches, and you've got this opportunity
to be very close to them, to study them intimately,
but then they get into the water and they are gone.
It is true, because we see the turtles,
we study a very small, tiny portion of their life.
That's when they come to lay the eggs.
We don't know what's going on in the ocean.
I think that the footage from the cameras will help us improve
much more our knowledge.
It's a free dive of nine metres to reach the bottom.
And within seconds, we get our first glimpse of a turtle
swimming into the blue.
And just metres away, another resting on the seabed.
Amongst the shoals of fish,
these rocky outcrops are the perfect environment for crustaceans
and seaweed, which loggerheads are known to feed on elsewhere.
It's a brief dive, but it gives me a tantalising insight
into the turtles' world.
But even if I had a scuba tank, I couldn't follow them for long enough
to answer Albert's questions, so I'm hoping our cameras can.
We just need a suitable loggerhead to join the team.
As night falls, the turtles begin to arrive on the beaches.
It's Albert and Christophe's opportunity to survey the nesting
females, and I'm joining them to find one
for our all-important camera deployment.
So how many turtles do you think are on the beach? Right now? Yeah.
Every night we are counting around 100 nests, around. Wow.
So that's 100 turtles.
So we should trip over one fairly soon. Definitely.
Actually, we can see one from here already.
Do you want to go and have a look?
Albert makes a quiet approach,
so not to disturb this female.
We're looking for a turtle that's big enough to carry our
camera with ease.
She looks big. She's around 80, 81, 80cm long.
That's big enough for us.
We've found our new crew member.
And this is the camera she'll be wearing.
This is the camera end.
We've got a high-definition camera that's sort of
tilting forward and down, that's going to give us that
over-the-shoulder view, a turtle's-eye view.
We've got the attachment points here.
After a day at sea,
there's magnesium swivels that dissolve in saltwater,
and that's when the camera floats back up to the surface.
Once the turtle has finished laying her precious eggs,
Albert and Christophe work swiftly and silently
to collect valuable data for their ongoing research.
Then they place a temporary box around her to keep her safe.
This is an exciting moment for me because this female is soon to go
from just being one of the many thousands of turtles that visit
these nests, to becoming a member of our film crew.
Her shell, or carapace, is given a clean, and the camera is attached
using an environmentally friendly resin.
Once the camera anchors have eroded away, this, too, will be shed
over the coming days.
Just over an hour after she first heaved
herself onto the beach,
our turtle is reunited with the ocean.
Here she comes.
Now it's over to her to film her secret world.
But only if all of this technology works.
Fingers crossed we'll get our camera back in 24 hours' time.
More than 80% of the ocean is unmapped and unexplored.
Even the lives of the most notorious marine animals harbour secrets.
You might think we know all there is to know about sharks,
but as they live at sea and can swim at high speeds,
they're incredibly tricky to study.
So our understanding of their lives is actually quite limited.
But our onboard cameras can help change that.
Scientist Dr Tristan Guttridge has been studying sharks
in the Bahamas for the past 15 years.
I have been literally obsessed with sharks since I can remember,
and it's just grown and grown and grown.
And I'm now a 38-year-old marine scientist that still
has that little-kid passion to work with sharks
and to learn more about them,
and to try and hopefully conserve them and protect them.
Tristan has come to the island of Andros - home to one
of the largest coral reefs in the world,
measuring over 220km long.
It's a magnet for several species of shark who rely on it
for food and shelter.
Reef sharks, lemon sharks and great hammerhead patrol the area.
Even one of the biggest predators in the ocean,
the tiger shark, lives here.
Around the world,
coral reefs are dying at unprecedented rates
due to pollution and climate change.
Tristan needs to check the health of the Andros Reef to ascertain
if these sharks will have a home in the future.
Doing this with a team of scuba divers would be an enormous task
that could damage the coral.
So the best guide to this vital underwater habitat
is the sharks themselves.
As a human, I can only spend about an hour underwater,
and I'm limited to certain depths as well.
But a reef shark, it can act as essentially a surveyor
for many, many hours.
And so we can actually look at the health of the system
that it's swimming in and patrolling.
Tristan wants to enlist the help of Caribbean reef sharks.
They spend most of their time around the coral, making them perfect
to carry the cameras.
Tristan is tagging sharks as part of his ongoing research,
so this is a good opportunity to add our onboard technology.
He's helped by shark expert Grant Johnson.
And to catch the sharks, they're using a simple float system.
The beauty of these things is that if the float starts moving
up and down, then you know you've caught a shark,
so we can actually get to that animal really quickly.
So it's a very effective way and a safe way of fishing
for these animals, because we can bring the shark to the side
of the boat, work it up, measure it, place our camera tag
in a short period of time.
And within minutes, they're in luck.
Oh, we've got something already. We've got a shark.
Yeah, we've got something moving already. Look at that -
five minutes and we've already got something hit a bait.
This place is just littered with sharks.
How much the float moves is an indication of how big the shark is.
Look at the buoy, man. The buoy's getting pulled down.
That is not small, that's towing that around.
That is definitely not small! I'm saying bull.
You're going bull? Yeah. I'm predicting... Look at that.
I mean, if it is a bull...
Look at that! Holy... Look at that!
Oh, my God, dude!
That is a three-metre tiger shark.
OK!
Tiger sharks are at the very top of the food chain.
They'll even eat other sharks.
But its own safety is top priority, so the team works carefully.
OK, we got her, we got her.
It's incredibly rare to catch this species,
and Tristan wants to make the most of it.
Like reef sharks,
tiger sharks use coral habitats,
but they explore other environments, too.
So if we can attach a camera, we can analyse the wider ecosystem
through the eyes of one of the world's greatest predators.
Our onboard system has been designed with the anatomy
of the shark in mind.
It can operate down to 500 metres, film in HD,
and even record depth and temperature.
With everything safely attached,
it's time for this incredible predator to capture
its underwater world.
Away she goes. Away she goes.
Unbelievable.
Wow.
Good work. Unreal. How's your back?
Totally fine, totally fine.
I was not expecting that.
This is becoming very interesting indeed.
Wow.
Five hours later, the camera automatically comes off,
but finding it in the open ocean is a tricky task,
so Tristan is relying on more technology.
Another 20 seconds.
The camera is equipped with a satellite beacon,
which Tristan can detect on this hand-held device.
That satellite tag is emitting its code every 90 seconds.
And I'm getting a bearing on where it actually is.
Another 15 seconds and we should be good.
You can see the water is much clearer here,
so hopefully the tiger shark got us some good... DEVICE BEEPS
Oh. Oh, yeah, this way. Slightly this way.
Tristan needs to find the tag quickly, before it gets swept out
to rougher seas beyond the reef.
You have a reef line here,
basically it's all the way along the east side of the island,
and then we have the tongue of the ocean,
that just drops off to this, almost 3,000 metres in some
of these sections here.
And what I'm hoping is that this tiger shark made its way out
onto the reef and cruised along that reef and maybe made some
deep dives down,
and we can see some of those deep-water habitats.
Suddenly... Straight to the right.
..a flash of orange stands out against the blue.
How did I know Grant would spot it?
Camera still on it? Yeah.
The LED is still on.
Disco, disco!
I'm very happy. Tag's intact, no evidence of rubbing or anything,
the satellite tag worked perfectly.
Let's hope there's some magic in here.
It's going to be amazing to see what's on that, dude.
It has been down to the bottom of the ocean. I know, I know!
Very excited.
It's a brilliant success.
And back on dry land, Tristan and Grant take a look at the footage.
She's moving quick.
Oh, you see some little - what is that, little coral heads
or sargassum that she's starting to pass through?
There's the wall, there's the drop-off. Yeah.
Is she going to go down it? She's just going off the edge. Yeah.
So that's got to be the dropping of the tongue of the ocean.
Yeah, exactly.
She is going deeper and deeper and deeper.
Look at how dark the water is getting.
Look... Is that the bottom? Yeah, that's the bottom.
From the depth gauge built into our camera,
we know that the shark is 160 metres deep.
That's more than five times deeper than the average scuba diver
is allowed to go.
One kind of amazing thing to consider is that she is
potentially showing us parts of the ocean that no-one
has seen before.
She is getting so deep.
This is not anywhere that a scuba diver would be exploring. Exactly.
This footage has helped Tristan see what the shark sees,
and he thinks it may have dived deep to search for the prey
in the water above.
To me, it makes sense.
If you're a, you know, a fast-moving ambush kind of predator,
you go along the bed like that, and then you can launch an attack
without being detected. Right.
The camera's in-built thermometer also shows it's five degrees colder
down here than at the surface.
My suspicion is that they're making these excursions onto the flats
to hunt for turtles, stingrays, smaller coastal sharks,
and then going back into the deeper water to recover.
This cold, deep water helps the shark cool off after hunting
in the warm, shallow sandflats,
letting it stay in peak performance mode -
critical for an apex predator like this.
Hey! The tag is off. It fell off.
Yeah, it popped off, we saw her tail.
Well, that worked unbelievably well for the first effort
on a big tiger shark.
I totally agree.
It's a promising start, but Tristan still needs to deploy the camera
on one of the most important species in the ecosystem -
Caribbean reef sharks.
He hopes they'll take us close to the coral, letting us see
how healthy the local reef is.
So the team will try again another time.
Back in the Atlantic Ocean on the island of Sal,
our turtle cam has been deployed for 24 hours.
Biologists Albert and Christophe need to find out if the loggerheads
feed here during the nesting season.
If we can film this behaviour, it will prove that this marine
ecosystem is vital for the turtles and needs protecting.
But first, we have to get the camera back.
It's seven o'clock in the morning, we've just had a ping from the GPS
on the turtle's camera, so it must have come off
and floated up to the surface.
We're heading out on a boat in the hope that we can find it.
We can only get a satellite location every few hours,
so it's a race to find the camera before the current
carries it off course.
To help us, we're also using a VHF radio antenna.
But sometimes our own eyesight
is better than the latest technology.
THEY SHOUT
I cannot believe that - our keen-eyed skipper spotted it.
Amazing.
Still largely intact.
Quite something, that this has spent 24 hours on the back of
a loggerhead turtle.
But will our footage provide the insight that Albert and Christophe
have been waiting for?
Will it show her feeding in local waters?
Time to take a look with Albert and Christophe back at the lab.
So this really is the big moment.
All of those long nights on the beach deploying these cameras,
and we've got the footage here, that we're going to see
for the first time.
Tell me about it!
Just press play. Let's go. OK, here we go.
Nice.
The view from the camera is crystal clear,
and straight away, our turtle rewrites a common scientific theory.
Female loggerheads
were thought to be solitary during the nesting season.
Oh, wow. Is that another turtle? It is.
Oh, wow. It is another turtle.
Oh, that's so cool.
Look at that.
Are they fighting? Are they playing?
Oh, there's another one!
Oh, my.
So crazy.
What is that?
It's like a...a shipwreck?
Oh, that's an anchor, actually.
Well, that's cool. Actually, I know where this place is.
That's so cool.
She's made this sort of definite beeline for that anchor.
I suppose it's a really prominent, prominent feature
there in the bottom.
Oh, my God.
What's she doing? Is she feeding? She is. Wow, she is!
She's feeding on the seaweed on the anchor.
That's unbelievable.
And one of the really, really interesting elements
is that it's so soon after the nesting.
I certainly did not expect that.
It's the first time ever that we've seen this behaviour.
Exquisite. This turtle is going to put me out of a job.
Put every underwater cameraperson out of a job.
This is the evidence we were looking for.
It proves that these turtles DO feed during their
five-month breeding season.
So this marine ecosystem needs more protection -
and that can't come soon enough, based on what she films next.
Is that a mesh over there? It looks like a mesh, a net.
Oh, man.
That's a massive fishing net.
That's awful.
It does reveal one of the many dangers they are exposed to.
Now she's biting the net,
she's trying to feed through the net.
Imagine if she manages to break this up
and then swallows the parts.
Who knows what's next,
whether she chokes on it...
This huge abandoned ghost net is a stark reminder of why
these waters need safeguarding.
Thankfully, our turtle swims off, and out into deeper water.
And she feeds again, this time on a jelly-like sea squirt.
I mean, this is sort of foraging,
sort of constantly grazing
that she's doing here.
You can see, like, pieces floating around,
so she's definitely feeding on that.
Feeding in this way,
is that enough sort of food for her in a day,
if she's constantly just browsing her way through the ocean?
I want to say no.
As you know and you've seen, nesting is really, really energy consuming.
So I believe that they top up their reserves right now.
Dive and feed complete, she heads towards the surface for a breath.
Oh, another turtle there. Another turtle.
It's got a big barnacle on it. Yeah. That's an old one.
Look how much stuff she has on the shell.
She's biting her. She's biting the carapace.
I'm pretty sure that our loggerhead is chewing off the seaweed
and probably the barnacle off the other loggerhead.
It's amazing to see so much life growing on that turtle,
but also following the turtle around,
this sort of moving ecosystem.
Totally.
And when you actually protect a turtle,
you also protect all the ecosystem
around them - the fish, the entire habitat.
You see, if we did not have the camera,
but only a tagging device, like a GPS system,
we would never know that that turtle spent
so much time at the surface with another turtle. Yeah.
This behaviour is very rare to see.
I mean, again, it's the first time, and I'm a professional diver,
I dive quite a lot here, and I've never seen that.
So does this, in some way, rewrite the science books
on what we know about these animals?
It certainly rewrites my knowledge.
The only way to see these sort of behaviours
is through these cameras.
From what we've learnt from this turtle, can that be used
to help protect different turtle populations around the world?
During this footage, these behaviours, and it's beautiful,
like, it will help people understand why we need to protect them,
why we need to stop polluting our oceans,
why we need to stop overfishing.
The Cabo Verde aggregation is probably the second largest
aggregation in the world.
If we lose this aggregation, the entire species
is in true danger of extinction.
When we started this adventure, like,
putting the cameras on the turtles,
there was no way we were expecting to see so much.
Our turtle's footage brings new insight
into the loggerheads' hidden world...
..revealing that they're more social than we ever imagined,
and that they DO feed during the nesting season.
A world first for science,
and it's the proof that Albert and Christophe needed
to push for greater protection of these vital waters.
And I hope it safeguards the future of this beautiful species
on Cape Verde for many years to come.
It's not only animals that live beneath the waves that have a hidden
side to their lives.
I'm about to meet some animals who will take our cameras on land,
in water and up in the air to solve some mysteries.
Gannets.
They're one of the most aerobatic sea birds in the world.
Renowned for their spectacular high dives,
they can drop like an arrow
from over 30 metres up and strike the water
at 80km per hour.
These feathered torpedoes can plunge 20 metres underwater,
where they can pick off their meal.
To protect themselves during these legendary stunts, they're equipped
with extremely strong neck muscles and a spongy plate of bone
at the front of their skull to cushion the impact.
They are famous for their incredible hunting skills,
but how do they find small shoals of fish hidden underwater
in the wide-open ocean?
I can stand on a gannet colony like this,
and with a big, long lens, get quite intimate views,
but that's just half the story, really.
Given that gannets can fly up to 250 miles away from their nest,
it would be impossible for me to follow an individual to find out
exactly what it's doing that far away.
So this is a job for our mini-camera technology.
I would say that we are pretty much guaranteed to get some dramatic
footage from an onboard camera.
And when they're not flying around dramatic clifftop colonies
like this, they are soaring over or plunging into the ocean.
In Ireland, Dr Mark Jessopp is trying to unravel some
of the gannet's mysteries.
For a number of years, we've been able to put GPS tracking devices
on birds, and that effectively tells us where animals are going
when they're out at sea, and where they go to forage.
But we're still not sure how they forage or what the cues are
that they might use to say, "There's food here."
In 60 years, sea bird populations in general, including puffins,
have declined by 70% -
but not gannets.
They are thriving.
Mark wants to use our cameras to see how gannets find their food,
because he thinks that's what makes them so successful.
Gannets are a really fascinating species. You know, they're one
of those species that have bucked the trend of global sea bird
declines, and gannets tend to be increasing in populations.
So we really want to understand how and why they're doing it.
One of the theories is that they're getting supplemental food
from humans through fisheries discards.
Ideally, I'd love to see something like fishing vessels,
perhaps other animals.
You know, pie in the sky, maybe we'll see some dolphins
and feeding associations with dolphins.
You know, the sky's the limit here, really.
If Mark can discover how gannets find their food,
he can work out how to help other sea birds that are in decline.
So we need a camera that's waterproof and lightweight,
yet strong enough to withstand a big impact.
It's one of the hardest challenges we've ever faced.
Tackling the task is tech wizard Chris Watts.
He's built cutting-edge cameras
for an incredible variety of animals.
And he's spent three months developing a bespoke gannet camera.
So this has been our solution.
It can record in HD.
It can do slow motion.
We've also fitted it with the widest-angle lens we can,
and we're hoping that we can get it on the back of the bird,
sort of base of the tail,
which means that we're just not going to miss any action.
It's coming in at...
..60g, which is pretty much perfect.
That's 2% of the gannet's body weight -
easily light enough for them to fly with,
and the battery should last for almost two hours.
Packing this much technology into such a small space
is an incredible achievement.
But can it deal with the impact of hitting the water at high speed?
When gannets strike the surface of the sea,
they experience almost 9G as they decelerate,
which is more than most fighter pilots can contend with.
To see if our camera can withstand such high forces,
Chris is going to some extreme measures to put them to the test.
Today, this is the moment of truth, really. If it's not waterproof
and it can't take the impact of hitting the water,
then it's all for nothing.
To simulate a gannet's dive, Chris is strapping the camera to an arrow,
ready to be fired out to sea.
So there we have it - the camera arrow.
It seems a slightly crazy way of testing a camera,
but I can't think of a better way.
A fishing reel brings it back to shore for inspection.
So, does it look like it's survived?
There's nothing in the front. Nope. So...
Yeah, good.
A triumph.
Even after repeated trials, the camera remains intact.
Now it's time for the real thing.
5km out in the Irish Sea, Mark and his team are heading
to the remote Saltee Islands -
home to over 7,000 breeding gannets.
The onboard camera will only record for two hours, so the team needs
to recruit a gannet that's just about to go fishing.
Birds can sit here at the nest for three or four days,
and the batteries will only last so long, and so we want to make sure
we're getting a bird just as it's about to leave.
The parents work in shifts -
while one guards the chick, the other goes foraging
for up to four days.
They then swap over,
and that's the moment Mark is looking for.
We just had one come in, Mark.
The one on the left has just fed the chick.
So we want the one on the right? Yes. OK, let's get him. Excellent.
Mark's research project means he has special permission
to catch these adults.
Ready? Yep.
The chick is safe with the other parent,
and when our bird is bagged,
it relaxes and Mark can do a few essential health checks.
That's three kilos exactly.
This one is in top condition - a perfect candidate
for carrying our camera.
So we attach it to the central tail feathers, and that means
that it's far enough away from where the head goes hitting
into the water at high speeds,
so that the tags don't sort of get ripped off
by that hydrodynamic drag.
This tape should hold the camera in place, but it's soft enough
that the bird could rip it off if it's not comfortable,
which means there's a very real risk these cameras won't come
back at all.
You have it? Yep. GANNET SQUAWKS
With everything in place, it's time for this bird
to reveal its secret life at sea.
Flying away quite nice and strong.
Seems to be very happy,
going off hopefully on a nice foraging trip for us as well.
Shall we go get another? I think we should.
Everything is switched on.
And after just 24 hours, the first member of our feathered film crew
returns with our camera intact.
Over the chick and around the bird. Go!
Really looking forward to seeing what's on the camera.
We have no idea. It's had a very successful foraging trip, I think.
He feels very heavy.
Oh, you fatty!
This gannet has put on 400g since it was caught yesterday.
So Mark knows it's been fishing.
We just hope that the camera was running at the right time.
I'd love to know what prompted that dive.
What did it see that says,
"This is where I need to dive to successfully get food"?
The bird is given a careful health check
and released back into the wild.
Then the team can take a look at the first batch of footage.
Oh, look at that!
Wow, that's so cool!
Oh, that's just beautiful.
It's very close to the surface of the water, isn't it?
Isn't it? Much, much closer to the water than I expected.
It's not travelling very high.
But it's great for people who have been doing a lot of work
looking at things like gannets' vulnerability to wind farms,
and obviously when they're flying that low,
they're well outside of the sweep area of any turbine.
So you would say that there'd be very little risk of collision.
I'm really impressed with the quality of the capture.
The video was really good as well, and really detailed.
Like, you can see excellent detail.
Even the shape of the wing as it flaps.
Oh, hang on. Back it up, back it up. Back it up.
There we go.
And to their delight, the team have captured some
diving behaviour.
Oh, plunge dives. Oh! Wow!
My goodness me! That is lovely.
I have always wanted to see that. All right.
Yeah, the trip was worth it for that one alone. Yeah.
Can we see that again? There we go.
But look at that beautiful bank into the dive.
You can see the other... It's going to the left.
It's just such powerful...wingbeats.
Such a great angle.
Oh, look at that! Straight down.
Straight down.
There's so much amazing footage there.
It's a brilliant start.
But because the action happens so fast,
it's hard to see how the gannets are finding their food.
So the team sets out to get more onboard footage,
but this time the cameras are set to record in slow motion.
So this time we should see precisely how they're finding the fish.
In total, seven gannets take our cameras out to sea
and return them safely back to the colony.
And after carefully analysing the footage, Mark can see exactly
how the gannets are finding their food.
So we're looking at one of my favourite sequences here,
it's one where all of a sudden we start seeing common dolphins
up at the surface,
and within seconds the gannets are going straight towards
those dolphins and diving.
It's really exciting to see them,
and I never thought we'd get footage
that was of a resolution that we could identify the species.
You know, they're quite clearly common dolphins.
Underwater, the camera's in-built microphone
has even recorded their calls.
DOLPHIN CALLS
Mark believes the birds are using the dolphins
to help find their food.
And he's found evidence that they're following other
marine animals, too.
We had to go through essentially frame by frame here to see this,
but you can quite clearly see two whales, at least whale blows.
And we see that the gannet is immediately turning towards those,
and easily within 15 to 16 seconds, that gannet is now diving
right where those whales were at the surface.
So it's indicating that those gannets are perhaps
using the whales themselves there
as a visual cue to say, "This is where other predators are,
"therefore, this is probably where there's food."
Fantastic to see these odd bits of behaviour that we would
have ordinarily missed.
The footage shows that gannets are using other species to effectively
find small patches of food in a large, open habitat.
And this has big implications for how we can serve them.
If we want to preserve gannets,
we need to preserve the visual cues that they're using, which means
protecting our dolphin populations,
it means protecting our whale populations.
All of these populations are interconnected.
So we need to take an ecosystems approach
to our conservation objectives.
In general, sea bird populations are declining,
partly because of a drop in fish stocks.
But gannets don't seem to be affected -
and our footage shows why.
So there's this wonderful sequence where we can see just out
on the horizon a fishing vessel.
And the gannet pretty much instantly starts to orient
towards and fly towards that fishing vessel.
Must be at least 100 other gannets around the fishing vessel here,
which might indicate that gannets have learnt to use fishing vessels
as a foraging cue, or as a cue that,
"There is food to be had here."
Importantly, there are very few other sea bird species capitalising
on this free meal.
It's almost exclusively gannets around here, and they're
quite an aggressive species.
So they're managing to successfully outcompete other sea birds
for that fisheries resource.
By exploiting fishing vessels, they get access to a steady supply
of food, even when their prey is in decline.
The onboard cameras have been a success.
They've shown us how these birds use other animals and even fishermen
to find their next meal.
Back in the Bahamas, shark scientist Dr Tristan Guttridge is trying
to deploy our cameras on some Caribbean reef sharks.
They can swim further and faster than a diver, so they can show us
how healthy this ecosystem is - and their survival depends on it.
This Caribbean reef shark, one of the most abundant species
here in the Bahamas and really one of the most important,
both ecologically, for their role within the coral reef system,
and then also economically as well -
a huge number of people from all over the world
will come here to dive with reef sharks.
And it doesn't take long to find one.
Oh, boy. Perfect size once again.
Every shark that Tristan catches is measured and tagged
as part of his long-term study to understand the abundance
and distribution of sharks in the area.
And 189.
Nice big male reef shark.
Right, and let's put the tag on.
This is basically a microchip tag that has a unique number.
And you put it in the muscle next to the dorsal fin.
And the idea... It's literally the size of a grain of rice.
And it would be what you would put in your dog.
And every time you pass a reader over it,
it activates and tells you that number.
So we're able to actually ID this animal,
hopefully for the rest of its life.
We try and be as gentle as we can, we're also trying to do this
as quickly as possible, so that we can get that shark
off and swimming.
The microchip provides important basic information,
while the camera gives us a shark's-eye view of their world.
The camera mount has soft pads on the inside of the clamp,
which gently hold it in place.
OK, we ready? Hang on.
Yeah.
Over the next few days, Tristan and Grant manage to deploy four
more shark cameras along different sections of the reef
to help get a good overview of the area.
Perfect.
All right, I think we're ready to release.
Wow.
Mature, about 1.7 metres long.
Hopefully it'll share some secrets with us
about the health of this system.
And it swam off great.
We didn't have it alongside the boat very long.
I'm really excited. Awesome.
Well done, everyone.
Each camera will record vital information about the health
of this ecosystem.
So it's critical Tristan and the team find them again.
Crossing my fingers that we get five hours of beautiful reef footage
from this Caribbean reef shark.
BEEPING
There it is!
Ha-ha! Yes!
Getting too good at this.
Like, 12:30, one o'clock.
Yes!
Fantastic.
In total, the sharks have captured almost 25 hours of onboard footage,
giving us a much more detailed look at their world
than any diver could achieve.
This is pretty cool.
Look at that, look at that. Oh, big barracuda.
I love being able to see what they are seeing.
But what the sharks have filmed is worrying.
There's a lot, a lot, a lot of algae overgrowth on some of these
reef patches that he's passed through.
You can see some signs of improvement.
There's certain hard corals growing, but a lot
of algae overgrowth in some of these areas.
Too much algae can reduce the oxygen levels
and block the sunlight,
killing the coral, which then has a negative effect
on everything in the food chain, from wrasse to reef sharks.
There's a lot of fishermen here.
So they could be putting a lot of pressure on some of those reef
fishes that would be normally eating the algae and then maintaining
the health of the system.
You've got, obviously, pollution as well.
And then on top of that, global warming.
Overfishing, pollution and climate change
could all contribute to this thick algae.
They're global issues, and will only get better if we continue
to reduce our impact on the natural world.
The cameras have provided a great insight into the health
of some of the most remote corners of this reef.
But they've also revealed some surprising shark behaviour.
This is cool. Look at that, a tight little tunnel.
Don't tell me it's going to go through there.
Wow! That's amazing. Right underneath the cave.
It's really amazing. Through the archway.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I've never really seen
one swimming this deep into the reef, like,
down these little gullies.
It makes you wonder if he's looking for food.
That could be a strategy, I guess -
stay close to the floor, search around the reef structure,
and basically ambush a reef fish.
It can't be easy hunting reef fish on the reef.
There are so many hiding places.
Reef sharks can sniff out prey or
use special electroreceptors to detect the heartbeat
of their next meal.
But it's hard to catch a fish before it escapes into the reef.
So by weaving through the coral, there's a chance this shark
can sneak up on its next victim.
It might also keep them hidden from bigger predators, like tiger sharks,
who, as we know, patrol this area.
Seeing this behaviour is something that only our cameras could reveal.
As soon as a diver enters the water, the sharks behave differently,
and there's no way a human could keep up with them
through these tight coral corridors.
Oh, oh.
That's where the tag came off.
No matter how much scuba diving you do,
you're never going to be able
to spend that much time with a shark. Exactly.
And that's the big difference.
That's the thing that these tags do for us, is we get five hours
of uninterrupted footage of where these animals
are going and how they're using their habitats.
The cameras have been a success, showing us that these sharks
can hunt among the coral in ways Tristan had never seen before.
And the footage proves that this reef needs further protection
from the global impact of mankind if it's to remain a shark Mecca.
Our oceans support some truly gigantic animals,
and our next mission is on the coast of California,
in Ano Nuevo State Park,
where giants come ashore to breed.
These are northern elephant seals.
The bulls can reach four metres long
and weigh over 2.5 tonnes.
They battle to become beach master.
Despite their blubbery appearance,
these animals are extreme athletes.
They swim 9,000 kilometres a year and can dive 1.5km deep,
drop their heart rate to just three beats per minute,
and can hold their breath for two hours.
Every winter, this area becomes a huge creche,
filled with over 2,000 females,
each giving birth to a single precious pup.
But after just four weeks, the mums head out to sea
and abandon their young forever.
Scientists Roxanne Beltran and Patrick Robinson know a huge amount
about the lives of the adults,
but very little is understood about the pups,
and they want to find out more.
The moms actually leave before the pups ever go
into the water.
So these juveniles, when they become independent from their moms,
are trying to figure out how to be seals.
They live off their fat reserves from their mother's milk
for the next two months,
before they head out to sea and fend for themselves.
During this time, they train for adult life,
much of which is done underwater,
where they can swim faster and further than we can,
making it hard to study them.
When they're in the water,
as soon as they dip below the surface,
we can't actually see what they're doing.
And so there's been this huge gap in our knowledge of what these seals
are actually doing in the two months
before they leave for that trip to sea.
With any luck, our onboard cameras will show what these pups are doing
to prepare themselves for adult life.
Roxanne and Patrick find four young seals to carry the cameras.
Although the pups are only a few weeks old,
they're already enormous.
They put on 90 kilos in their first month,
fuelled by milk which is 55% fat -
that's more than double cream.
After a few health checks, our specially designed onboard cameras
are attached with a temporary nontoxic glue.
During the procedure we're monitoring everything
from heart rate to respiration rate,
we're making sure that everything is going appropriately with the seal.
I've spent the past 15 years studying the adult animals,
and we know so much about what the adult females do
when they're out at sea,
and we don't know very much about what the young ones are doing
right here next to the colony.
So this is an amazing opportunity for us.
The cameras will record for 16 hours,
and have been designed to withstand
the crushing pressure of deep water.
Once they've returned safely,
Roxanne and Patrick are able to analyse the footage.
Oh, wow.
What is she doing?
They're more graceful than I thought, like,
just based on how they are on land.
Swimming with the seals gives Roxanne and Patrick
an entirely new perspective.
And the footage provides a real revelation about how social
the pups are.
I'm surprised by how active and interactive they are.
Yeah, I think when adult elephant seals go out to sea,
they don't interact at all, right?
That's what we think, at least!
Yeah, I don't think there's any evidence for that.
They're completely solitary at sea.
So the fact that these guys are interacting in the water is weird.
I wonder if they're just learning from each other.
I guess, because they get no parental instruction...
That's right. ..this is helpful for them in their development.
In all of the footage, the pups only ever swim in shallow water.
Roxanne and Patrick think that's
because they're too fat to dive deep.
Despite being so heavy,
all of their blubber makes them really buoyant.
Without doing anything, she automatically floats to the surface.
I think that's why she's working really hard to stay down to explore
the bottom of the ocean,
and maybe why she's interacting with other seals.
I don't know if they're sort of helping pin each other down
or what they're doing.
They need the fat in order to survive a long period of time
while they're learning how to forage. Yeah.
But it's actually bad for them because if they're too buoyant
it's difficult to forage.
So... It's a trade-off.
It's a trade-off. Yeah. Yeah.
Swimming around these shallows,
the pups seem to investigate anything they come across -
even bits of rubbish.
A plastic bag. Plastic?
It's unlikely to mistake this plastic bag for food,
but they have been known to get tangled up in waste.
And this playfulness could explain how that happens.
The cameras also reveal that these mischievous pups
often chase the local fish.
They're not catching them, but it's all good practice.
And it's not just the fish they're toying with.
Surprisingly, they spend a lot of time playing with seaweed.
What is she doing?
Did she grab it? Yeah. Yeah.
She's dragging it around!
What?!
Playful practice is important in the development
of many young animals.
For these seals, it may help build those important diving skills
which later they'll rely on.
After their in-water training, it looks like they come out
for a rest on the beach,
but the scientists have a very different theory.
It's hard to see to the untrained eye, but the seals seem to be
holding their breath.
It doesn't look like they're doing much here, but I think
what they're actually doing is figuring out
how to become breath-hold divers,
so that they can find food during their first trip to sea.
Like, developing their physiology. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you can see that seal is holding its breath,
and will probably hold its breath for a long time.
I wonder, just like we would train for a marathon by doing
little runs, they're doing little breath holds
to basically figure out how they can get down to food on breath hold.
This seal holds its breath for almost 12 minutes.
So it's got some practice to do before it can manage two hours,
like the adults.
By filming themselves, these pups have shown us
how they prepare for life at sea.
After being left alone without a mother, they seem to train
together, trying to hunt,
exploring their environment and practising to hold their breath -
key skills that will make them elite ocean divers.
Next time, we travel down under
to solve the mysteries of some iconic Australian animals.
We discover the surprising nightlife of koalas...
Oh, wow. Look at that.
..reveal how kangaroos are affected by urbanisation...
We have to make a decision -
do we want to live alongside kangaroos?
..and we create our most advanced camera yet
to find out what's drawing thousands of flying foxes
to a new life in the city.
Ha-ha! He's going over the road.
As a cameraman, I've filmed wildlife all over the planet,
but there are limits to where I can go.
She's returning to the place that I can't follow her.
So in this series, it's the animals that are doing the filming,
to reveal the secret side of their lives we've never seen before.
Oh, that's so cool!
That is lovely!
Over the years, we've designed pioneering mini cameras
for a huge range of animals.
It's like a job interview.
Everything is made to measure.
Just figuring out what her new bit of bling is.
And we've teamed up with scientists
who want to see the world from an animal's perspective.
To learn about the challenges they face,
and help protect them in the future.
She is potentially showing us
parts of the ocean that no-one has seen before.
GULL CRIES
Our unconventional film crew reveals surprising behaviour.
Oh, there's another one!
And help us help them.
Woohoo! Couldn't be happier than that.
In this special episode, we head to Australia,
where our cameras will answer scientists' questions
about some of the most unique animals on the planet.
Are koalas' evening activities
at odds with their dozy daytime reputation?
Can kangaroos survive on the edge of urban expansion?
And what has drawn 20,000 bats to life in a new city?
This is their world,
their footage,
and their story.
On Australia's east coast...
..high in the towering trees of Queensland,
is one of the country's most iconic species.
Best known for their love of eucalyptus leaves
and dozing through the heat of the day.
The koala.
With specialised claws for gripping tree trunks up to 30 metres up...
..and an excellent sense of smell
for seeking out the freshest gum leaves,
these marsupials are superbly adapted to their environment.
With speckled bottoms to help with camouflage,
these specially toughened rumps
enable koalas to wedge themselves comfortably in tree forks,
where they can sleep for up to 20 hours a day.
Their tree-hugging posture is more than an affectionate arboreal embrace, too.
Tree trunks can be as much as five degrees cooler
than the surrounding air temperature.
Which, in this region, can reach a punishing 40 degrees Celsius
in the height of summer.
Tree hugging is a means to keep cool,
as well as look effortlessly chilled.
This one may look blissfully happy nestled in a tree,
but koalas are in trouble.
The open forest and bushland they call home
is rapidly disappearing.
Lost to agriculture,
urban development
and ever-increasing bushfires.
FLAMES ROAR
There are now fewer than 35,000 left in this corner of Queensland.
And each year, over 2,000 homeless koalas are taken into care.
While much is known about koalas' daytime habits,
what they do at night is still a mystery.
This information, however, could be crucial
to help conserve their population in the future.
This is Hidden Vale,
a 12,500-acre private property
where the land and koala population are protected.
It could be a candidate location
to release koalas who have lost their homes.
But first, it's vital to know how much space
the ones that already live here need to avoid overcrowding.
Andrew Tribe and Carmen Butler
have been tracking the resident population here
for the past two and a half years.
We have, we estimate, about 60 koalas.
But at the moment, we're tracking about 20 of those.
All our koalas, of course, are named,
and we've found that they each have their own personality.
Miriam, Dave and Karen
are just a few of the characters that call Hidden Vale home.
Using lightweight GPS collars and VHF ear tags,
Andrew is able to monitor their movements.
Every 12 hours, we get a reading of where each koala is.
Which means we know where it's been, how far it's travelled.
We also physically go out and track them.
We've been able to establish how big their home ranges are,
where they like to go, with whom they like to interact,
although we still don't know about their behaviour at night.
So, what do they get up to in the dark?
Although Andrew's GPS collars track the koalas' movements,
he can't see what the animals are actually doing.
To find out, he needs onboard cameras.
We know they sit in trees and we know they eat leaves and that sort of thing,
but what I'd like to find out is a bit more detail about that.
How much time do they spend eating? How far do they move?
How far do they move in the one tree?
Footage of this behaviour could really help Andrew's ongoing tracking studies.
And, crucially, identify whether any rescued koalas could be introduced here.
For our koala camera build, it's time to call in designer Chris Watts.
An expert in bespoke camera technology,
Chris has made cameras for animals of every shape and size.
The koalas currently wear a collar like this,
with a GPS unit on top.
And it has a counterweight underneath, which keeps the aerial
pointing upwards, which is really good for signal.
We're going to take this weight away,
and that's where we're going to put our camera.
And it's kind of fixed on a hinge,
which means that when the koala is upright,
it can hang against the body. And that's really good, because
we don't want a camera sticking out cos they hug the trees.
With the cameras built and ready to deploy,
it's time to recruit our koala camera unit.
The koalas at Hidden Vale are
captured regularly for health checks.
On the catch list this week are koalas Robyn, Tom and Hunter.
Andrew's team use a technique called flagging,
to encourage the koalas down from the gum tree,
and capture them with a minimum of stress.
Get ready, mate, get ready.
Stay still, stay still.
OK. Well done.
Safely in their crates, our koalas make the short trip back to the vet centre
for a health assessment, and to be fitted with our cameras.
Hunter is first.
He's lightly anaesthetised and checked over by the veterinary team.
0.2 earlier. Yes, he's still growing.
He is approximately three and a half years old.
And he's in really nice body condition.
All checked over, Chris gets to work
attaching the camera to Hunter's collar.
DEVICE BEEPS
The camera looks like it's fitting really nicely.
And the thing that I wasn't able to test until now
is to see how that hinge is working
and see how it sits against the chest.
And it looks like it's spot on, so that's really good.
After a few hours' recovery, Hunter is ready to be released
back into the tree where he was found.
He's ready already.
He's definitely seen it, hasn't he?
And if we just stay really still and really quiet...
That was a pretty calm release. Yeah. He's a really good boy.
He's, um...he's pretty calm.
But although reunited with his tree,
Hunter soon decides he'd prefer a different one.
An interesting insight into how fast koalas can move if they want to.
So although we released Hunter from the tree in which he was found,
he came down and ran across and found this tree, just over here.
And as Hunter settles into his new tree, unhindered by his camera,
Robyn and Tom are also returned to the tree tops.
So now, the big test will be, what shots do we get?
And - what do these shots tell us about their night-time movements?
After a night of recording,
at first light, Chris, Andrew and Carmen
are keen to retrieve the cameras.
Armed with the koalas' GPS coordinates,
it's not long before they track down Tom.
Well, he's in a good position, not too high.
But it's not all plain sailing.
If we drop that camera, it's quite hard, cos he's in a fork,
knowing which side that's going to drop. Yes.
So we might have to maybe all stand each side and trigger it.
So whichever way it falls, we got a chance of hopefully softening the fall.
Yes, a slip's catch. Yeah.
With everyone poised for a catch, it's time for the release.
So three, two, one, releasing.
And the camera drops.
THEY LAUGH
Well, it's worked! That was a little bit far.
And he's...he's now moved higher, so that's all right,
but he's otherwise undisturbed. OK, that's great.
Next on the retrieval list is Hunter,
who's snoozing through the heat of the day in an ironbark tree.
I'm really excited about this one. Hunter is the big male, isn't he?
He is, yes. 7.1 kilos.
But he's quite high, so I'm thinking maybe we use the tarp on this one.
Don't want it to land on our heads. THEY CHUCKLE
Oblivious to the plans being made below,
Hunter remains fast asleep.
Firmly hugging his camera to the tree trunk.
Tarp at the ready, Andrew releases Hunter's camera.
Sending.
But nothing happens.
Does it say released? It said, "sending, released".
Hunter, it seems, is asleep on the job.
THEY LAUGH I think...
I think, yeah, I think, Hunter, we need you to move.
Come on.
Eventually, Hunter obliges.
Oh, he's moving! Here we go!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
And this time, the team have more luck with the catch.
Good reaction. Better than last time! Yeah. Amazing!
While Hunter looks on bemused,
the team head off to find Robyn and the final camera.
And it turns out our smallest koala
has given the team their biggest challenge.
She's actually really, really high. Yes, she is.
What do we reckon - like, 20 metres?
I'm a bit worried about being underneath.
Cos if it hit one branch, it could ping off and hit us.
Yeah, there are lots of branches between us and her.
We're quite lucky, though, we've got quite long grass,
so maybe that will cushion the fall.
Three, two, one, releasing.
BEEPING Oh, here we go! It's coming down!
Oh! Missed!
Missed the tarpaulin by that much.
With all our cameras back, and mostly in one piece,
time to see what they reveal.
At dusk, the team reconvene to have a look.
For Carmen and Andrew, it's a tantalising glimpse
inside a koala's world.
And it's a raucous start from Hunter.
HUNTER BELLOWS
Oh, wow, that's cool! Wow!
He is, what's known as, bellowing.
And this is the first time a koala bellow
has been recorded at this proximity.
BELLOWING
Dominant males call out like this
to advertise themselves to nearby females,
and alert other males to stay away.
Territorial call complete, it's time for dinner.
By the looks of the thin branches,
Hunter is precariously high in the tree tops,
reaching out for the newest, luscious growth.
It's interesting here with this footage, to see how their fingers,
their claws, their digits actually work as they're climbing.
Koalas have two opposable thumbs on each front paw,
to help clasp tree trunks and grip branches.
They've got a very strong grip.
You haven't been gripped by a koala yet, have you? No.
Oh-ho-ho-ho! It's...it's strong.
Koalas almost exclusively feed on low-nutrient eucalyptus leaves.
And they can nibble through almost half a kilo in one evening.
These leaves are poisonous to most animals.
But koalas have evolved to digest the toxins.
And our camera records Hunter eating for three hours straight.
Tom, on the other hand, is on the move.
It's so easy to forget when you're watching this night-time footage
that that's not what they're seeing. They're in total darkness.
A koala's eyesight is their weakest sense.
So while on the ground, Tom regularly makes stops
to check his surroundings.
But he's obviously sort of orientating himself.
He's obviously deliberately stopping.
Tom is using his highly developed sense of smell
to navigate and assess his surroundings for danger.
And he presses on,
covering almost half a kilometre of ground in 30 minutes.
For an arboreal species, this is a midnight marsupial marathon.
So, what about Robyn?
Aw, look at her feet!
Her footage begins with a dedicated hunt for a new tree.
This is interesting, seeing what she's seeing
and seeing how she's moving and she's behaving.
I wonder if she's got a destination in mind?
Female koala home ranges are usually smaller than the males'.
The amount of time Robyn is spending on the ground
is unexpected, and dangerous.
I thought she might have got up a tree much quicker.
If there's any predators around, particularly dogs,
they can pick up her scent and chase her down.
After stopping at eight different trees along the way,
Robyn finally finds one she likes.
Wow! That was a very quick, um... Yes. Mm.
..jump in that tree. That leap. It's almost like,
"I've made up my mind, I'm going for it".
Perhaps she got a good eucalypt smell
that maybe means there might be some good food up there.
A lot of trees have different tannin levels. Yes.
So she's sniffing those trees and deciding,
"Do I want to go up there and eat?"
Koalas choose trees for specific reasons.
Some are chosen as dedicated food trees
and others are selected for the shelter they offer.
Within minutes, Robyn is in the very top of the tree
she's been searching for.
Oh, wow! Look at that!
And as dawn breaks, she settles in for a snooze.
That's a great shot, isn't it? Yes.
CARMEN CHUCKLES
She's sitting up with both paws this way.
It looks like that, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's a bit of an embrace. Holding her paws in her lap.
Dozes off.
Oh, wow! Aw! Oh, look, the sun's really come up now.
Mm, it has, hasn't it?
Our koalas have revealed themselves to be anything but dozy at night.
A stark contrast to the lazy layabouts they appear to be during the day.
While it was known that koalas climbed down each night,
to pick a different tree,
from observing Tom, Robyn and Hunter,
it's clear that koalas scale many trees
over the course of an evening.
And are incredibly picky.
They spend more time on the ground than anyone expected.
It suggests that koalas need sizeable reserves
and many different types of trees to safeguard their future.
Combined with Hidden Vale's tracking data,
our camera footage is key for reserve managers like Andrew.
This sort of information, I think, is vital
if we're going to manage koalas and koala populations better.
In south-east Queensland, more than 2,000 koalas get brought into care every year,
often because of habitat-clearing.
Many of those koalas can be rehabilitated
and released back into the wild,
but if they're going to survive and contribute to the wild population,
we have to find suitable habitat in which to release them.
While our camera findings help Andrew better understand
the needs of the population at Hidden Vale,
they can also help identify other suitable habitats in Australia.
And ensure relocated koalas get exactly what they need to survive.
It's a quick hop to our next story,
an altogether very different marsupial.
The kangaroo.
Renowned for the spring in their step,
able to leap up to nine metres in a single stride,
they can cover ground as fast as a racehorse.
Of the four different species of kangaroo,
the most numerous is the eastern grey.
I've come to find them here, in Coffs Harbour,
500km north of Sydney.
This picturesque coastline is a growing metropolis
and a popular holiday destination.
It's also home to one of the most dense populations
of eastern grey kangaroos in Australia.
These voracious herbivores have a huge appetite for grass.
Grazing as much as ten hours a day.
But the kangaroos here have taken
to hanging out with surfers on the beach.
The question is, why?
I'm just trying to get a sense of this place
and a sense of the kangaroos that live here.
This seems like a really unlikely place for kangaroos to come.
And the big question that I have is,
what are they...what are they doing here?
And if I can't answer that question,
I'm hoping that our cameras can.
Despite their numbers, local highway expansion
and new housing developments means this mob is under threat.
And this is a key factor - the Pacific Motorway.
At 790km long,
this coastal road connects Sydney in the south
to the Gold Coast in the north.
But it's confined the roos of Coffs Harbour
to a narrow strip of land between road and sea.
If four lanes of traffic aren't enough,
the fences either side make it impossible to cross.
So the kangaroos are trapped here,
with less and less food to go around.
Kangaroos don't come in all shapes, but they do come in all sizes.
You've got the big males, they're called boomers.
At the opposite end of the scale,
the little ditty ones are called joeys,
and the females are called flyers.
Because of the urban development, because of the highway,
it has changed the dynamics of...of this population.
To my untrained eye, these animals are not in peak condition.
You see that they're on the skinny side.
With limited space and food on offer between the motorway and ocean,
the roos have already been pushed on to the headland,
and even the dunes, as they desperately attempt to find food.
But are they going one step further
and feeding on the beach itself?
And, can our cameras prove it?
Dr Cathy Herbert from the University of Sydney
has been studying the population here for the past five years.
We've just noticed, literally within the last year,
that we're seeing more and more animals on the beach.
They're actually foraging on some of the vegetation,
on the sand dunes.
But we're also seeing some interesting signs
in terms of their tracks on the beaches.
And it's possible that maybe they're foraging on some sort of food source,
which would be a really interesting and unique observation
for this particular species.
The eastern grey kangaroo tends to be most active
early in the morning and at dusk, when we can't see them.
So by getting video footage, particularly overnight
and really early in the morning,
we might be able to unravel this mystery
and figure out what they're doing.
Kangaroos are crepuscular, feeding at dawn and dusk.
So if they are going down to the water line in the early hours,
the tracks are gone by daybreak.
These kangaroos coming down onto the beach,
they're motivated by something,
and that's the mystery, that's the question. Yeah.
We can see them hopping down,
we see them slowing down,
and then the tides wash the tracks away. Yeah.
Nobody's really done a thorough investigation of what they're doing
and how they're utilising that beach environment. Yeah.
The shoreline is certainly not an ideal habitat
for these ravenous roos.
So, what could they be feeding on by the water's edge?
It's something I hope our cameras can reveal.
But how do you create a camera
that can withstand being bounced around?
It's another unique challenge for Chris.
Hey, Chris. You all right?
Let's talk kangaroos and cameras.
We'll try to use neoprene, which is kind of a stretchy material,
so it will move with the animal.
And we have got a release mechanism which is controllable by us. Mm-hm.
It's a small nylon cord
that basically gets cut when we trigger it. OK.
And then, that'll just drop the whole thing away.
But as a backup, if this failed, we've got a fail-safe,
which is kind of a weak point in the collar,
which is just made with a natural cotton.
So we've got to make it strong enough, but also weak enough
that if they didn't like it or wanted to get it off,
that it would easily come away.
With the cameras ready, we now need our kangaroos.
To get close enough to conduct a research,
Cathy uses a tranquiliser gun.
DART RELEASES AND ROO SNORTS GENTLY
Sedated and safe,
a series of blood samples and measurements are taken
to help assess the health of this population,
and the first signs are worrying.
She is a little bit thin.
So some of the areas around the tail here,
they should have lots of muscle... Mm-hm.
..either side of the processes that stick out from the vertebrae.
And I can feel those vertebral processes
quite prominently in her tail.
So she's definitely not in fantastic condition.
None of the kangaroos here are in prime health.
But importantly, Cathy is happy that this roo
is fit enough to carry our camera.
How do you feel about that? Yes, it seems pretty good.
You want to be able to get a finger between, or two fingers between,
quite comfortably.
OK, Cathy, are you happy with that? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, you definitely don't want it any looser, so, yeah.
Now weigh. Weigh. OK. Weigh.
It's OK. This is my workout for the day. OK.
31.5.
Camera on, our roo is weighed...
30.1. Yeah.
..and allowed to come round.
She's looking around, she looks perfectly relaxed and comfortable.
It's a good thing.
And just figuring out what her new bit of bling is.
But her new accessory doesn't last long.
Damn it!
How did that happen?
Our wily kangaroo has already broken out of the collar.
I didn't even see. I don't know whether she was scratching her ear,
or whether she, er...
..got one of her claws just inside,
under the neoprene, and pulled it off.
Oh, that's not good.
Chris? I think the cotton might have failed.
CHRIS SIGHS
It looks like the weak link Chris built in to the collar
has snapped too easily.
With reinforcements made, and as Cathy is darting many roos for her research,
we're soon ready to try again.
And this female has a surprise in store.
She's got a little one in the pouch. Oh, does she? Oh!
Oh, my word! That is incredible! Look at that!
That is... Yeah. ..extraordinary.
Jeez! That just defies belief.
Yeah. So this one... That is alien. It is.
..is probably about ten weeks old.
And we should be able to tell what sex it is.
Gosh, it's so delicate!
It's a female. OK. You can just see her little pouch.
That is just extraordinary!
The anaesthetic that Cathy uses won't pass into the mother's milk,
so this little Joey is completely unaffected by the procedure.
Yeah, that's the most amazing thing of the year, I think.
As Cathy takes the rest of her measurements,
Chris carefully attaches the camera.
And she's left under a tree to wake up.
But this roo is giving us the runaround.
When we go back to check on her,
all we find is a camera on the ground.
It seems the quick-release collar
is proving a little too easy to get out of.
Its fail-safe, just a few strands of cotton,
is still too fragile.
It is a very fine balance.
You were going to say fine line, which is exactly... I was! ..what it is.
So maybe we need a less-fine line. Yeah.
GORDON CHUCKLES I think we can up it a bit more.
What I'll do is go back and I'll thicken it up
and just have a few practices at breaking it
and just get a feel for... Yeah. ..how much force.
Chris is going to redesign the collar overnight,
but will it be enough to get our kangaroo shoot under way?
From a species grappling with urban sprawl
to one which has chosen to live right in the middle of it.
For our next camera candidate,
we're heading straight into the heart of the city.
Adelaide, South Australia.
In 2010, a small group of pioneers
embarked on an epic journey to set up camp here.
50 or so new arrivals have now grown to more than 22,000.
Meet the grey-headed flying foxes.
Usually found along the east coast,
these intrepid travellers have flown 1,000 kilometres
to settle in South Australia.
Never before seen here, their sudden appearance was a complete mystery.
HIGH-PITCHED CLICKING
Despite their fox-like faces, these are no canines.
They are, in fact, one of Australia's largest species of bat.
Weighing up to a kilo, these magnificent flying mammals
have a wingspan of over a metre.
Unlike the smaller microbats,
these giants don't echolocate, or feed on insects.
Instead, they eat flowers and fruit,
giving them their other name, fruit bats.
But can they find the right foods in their new city home?
What has drawn them all the way to Adelaide?
As a species, they're often unpopular
for their large, noisy camps and appetite for food crops.
To most, the sudden arrival
of flying foxes in Adelaide was puzzling.
But for wildlife vet, Wayne Boardman,
and bat specialist, Terry Reardon,
their arrival was the perfect opportunity
to study the species in more depth.
What I love about them is they're very smart, very intelligent.
They've got this incredible physiology.
They have developed great senses of smell,
good eyesight, great hearing,
and they've got this ability to move across the landscape.
Wayne and his team at the University of Adelaide have tracked
the flying foxes' nocturnal movements using GPS collars,
and discovered that they travel up to 80km a night
when they fly off to forage.
It would be really nice to find out
what they do when they go out travelling.
Do they feed? What do they feed on?
Could food preference be a key reason
behind the flying foxes' arrival in the city?
Flying foxes primarily eat gum flowers
and the nectar from gum flowers,
and also, fruit.
These megabats can eat important agricultural crops,
which is why many people consider them to be a pest.
Their hunger for fruit is a particular worry for local farmers.
The Adelaide region is home to numerous sugar-rich crops.
Safe to say, Adelaide's new arrivals
were not a welcome sight for local fruit producers.
When we have a species that's quite contentious
in terms of causing problems with commercial fruit,
we want to try and find out exactly what they're eating.
If we know that they're eating a lot of commercial fruit,
what can we put in place to stop them?
If they're not eating commercial fruit, then we can be happy
that they are part of the landscape, and we should enjoy them.
And these much-persecuted animals really should be celebrated.
An individual flying fox will not only pollinate many plants,
but disperse up to 60,000 seeds across the landscape every night.
From a scientific point of view,
flying foxes are extremely valuable for the environment.
Which is why Wayne is studying the ongoing health of the population here.
But the only way to really understand their world
is to get amongst it.
Something that is tricky enough during the day,
but practically impossible at night.
To answer Wayne's question of where they go and what they feed on,
a wearable night-time camera is called for.
Yet another task for Chris.
And safe to say, this build has given him the most sleepless nights.
So putting a camera on a bat has got to be
the most challenging thing I've been asked to do yet.
Although they are one of the biggest bad species, around 800g,
that only gave me a weight limit of 35g.
And that is the equivalent to maybe two packets of chewing gum.
And for that tiny payload, Chris has built a camera
complete with infrared light,
a programmable onboard computer and a VHF tracker.
Another design consideration with this camera
has been the placement.
So we've decided to put it on the back.
And that's hopefully going to mean
it's not in the way when the bats are flying.
And they also spend a lot of time hanging upside down,
so if it's on the back, it's out of the way.
If it was a collar camera, it's going right under their chin
and it's going to be really annoying.
So much of this is the animals being as comfortable wearing these cameras as possible,
cos that gives us the best chance of them staying on.
As night falls, the flying foxes depart for the evening adventures.
Just a few hours later, Chris and the team arrive at the Botanic Park
to prepare for the flying foxes' return.
It's a 3:00am start for scientists Wayne, Terry
and a team of expert bat-catchers.
So if you want to come and have a look at the ropes, Chris?
Wayne surveys the health of the flying fox population here twice a year.
A process that involves capturing them,
weighing them and taking samples.
Which also gives us the perfect opportunity to attach our cameras.
The flying foxes will be caught in a fine net
suspended between two trees.
So, everybody knows what they're doing?
So this is our first morning, um...
that we might actually catch a bat.
Very excited to see if this will work.
It's quite an operation, getting this net up in the tree.
So, yeah, now we wait.
And it's not long before one hits the net.
Oh!
Right.
JUBILANT CHATTER
Each flying fox caught is weighed as part of its checkup.
And if one tips the scales at 700g or more,
it's also big enough to carry one of our cameras.
800. Yeah, got it.
While the survey continues,
already-captured bats are hung in a bag
for the short wait before going to the vet facility.
For animals that naturally hang upside down,
this has a calming effect.
Yep, that's it.
OK, up. Up!
By 5:30am, six flying foxes have been caught for Wayne's checks,
and hopefully, our cameras.
Back at the clinic, it's time to meet our first flying fox camera cadet.
So I'm just going to get the mask.
The process begins with a light anaesthesia.
Safely asleep, Wayne conducts his research.
As well as weight, he takes a blood sample,
checks for body condition, and collects some key measurements.
So it's amazing to see these animals up close.
They're actually bigger than I was expecting.
They've got these really sharp teeth, which I'm a little bit worried about,
cos obviously, these cameras are so light, they're not very well-protected.
Gloves on, it's time for the camera.
And it's a great fit.
I'm quite happy with that.
It's sitting between the shoulder blades nicely.
So, we can wake it up? Happy? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Good.
After Wayne fits the rest of the cameras
and the anaesthetic has worn off,
the flying foxes are ready to be returned to the camp.
HIGH-PITCHED CLICKING
Wayne gently places our first crew member on the tree,
and it seems completely unfazed by its new high-tech backpack.
But in a camp of 22,000,
it's not long before it disappears from view.
This is part of the argument for putting a camera on a bat, isn't it?
Is how quickly we've lost sight. Yeah.
And our camera is now capturing it all for us.
Thankfully, our long-lens camera finds it high in the tree tops.
As this is the first deployment,
Chris wants to keep the flying fox in sight, to make sure it's OK.
The bat's actually just taken off.
That's incredible! That's the first time
that we've ever had actual flying footage from a bat.
Whaa! CHRIS LAUGHS
It's a great start.
And over the next hour, five more are released back into the camp.
Each of these carrying a night-time camera
to reveal their all-important nocturnal feeding habits.
The first test camera has been recording throughout,
so now it's time to get it back and see if it's worked.
Remarkably, within the minuscule 35-gram camera,
Chris has built in a remote-controlled drop-off mechanism.
But just as he's about to press the trigger,
the flying fox takes to the skies.
Taking our footage with it.
A lot, or just a little bit?
A lot?
Without the camera in view,
it's high risk to hit the release button,
but Chris tries anyway.
Three, two, one, releasing.
While no-one hears or sees the camera fall,
eagle-eyed cameraman Miles spots something in the undergrowth.
Much to the relief of the crew.
Oh, my God! ..Five minutes ago, that...
MUFFLED CHEERING
With the first test camera retrieved,
it's time for Wayne and his team to take a look.
Unlike the others, this camera is set to record daytime movements.
Some good news. H-H-Hey!
It's the team's first look at life in the tree tops...
BELLS PEAL
..and the flying fox's view of Adelaide.
I thought I could hear music.
Oh, it's the... No, it's the... It's the cathedral! St Pete.
The cathedral. Oh, right, the cathedral! Yeah. It's at 10:00am.
Ha! That's amazing! That is! Perfect timing in there.
But then, our filming flying fox takes to the skies.
The first time bat flight has ever been recorded
from the animal's point of view.
Oh, you can hear it! Wow! Wing tips are right out in front!
Ha!
It's even possible to see
how its wing tips almost touch after each beat.
The footage is welcome proof these tiny prototype cameras
really can help Wayne's research.
Oh, what a relief! It is.
We've got some great footage.
HIGH-PITCHED CHIRPING
And this daytime camera is already revealing new things to Wayne.
So it went into the fig tree the first time
and then it's moved to another tree, did it?
So, that looks like a pine tree there, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
The footage is good enough for Wayne to identify
the different tree species the flying fox is roosting in.
Detail that will be essential
if he's to identify what trees and what food
the flying foxes are feeding on after dark.
So now to our main experiment.
The setting sun is the cue for our flying foxes
to depart and find food.
Among the thousands that fill the sky
are our aerial film unit of five.
And as they disappear into the night,
it's over to them to film for us.
But will our cameras survive, and will the flying foxes
bring their precious footage back tomorrow morning?
HIGH-PITCHED CHIRPING
WAVES CRASH
Back at Coffs Harbour on the east coast,
this population of kangaroos is feeling the urban squeeze.
Trapped between a motorway and the ocean,
they are struggling to find food.
Dr Cathy Herbert hopes our onboard cameras will reveal
if these isolated roos are foraging on the beach to survive.
However, so far, we've not got a camera on.
The camera collars, made with a quick release to come off
if the animal gets snagged,
are falling off too easily.
It has to be strong enough and weak enough.
It's just finding that sweet spot...
That's right, yeah. ..so it doesn't just drop off.
Well, at the moment, we're using three strands of cotton.
So I think if we up that to maybe eight or nine pieces... Yeah.
..that'll hopefully just give us the edge we need.
Camera modifications made,
we head out to hopefully find a kangaroo for our crew.
You happy with everything? Yeah. So that's all our samples.
Good. Yeah, camera's good to go.
Yeah. So we'll put her in a shady spot to recover.
Time to put Chris' handiwork to the test.
Good luck.
OK, she's hopped off.
She's hopped off. She's got the camera, she's looking good.
It's a huge relief.
And knowing that the collars work, we deploy another five cameras.
DULL BEEPING
That's the track on the VHF, I reckon. Yep. So...
It's now up to the kangaroos to capture the challenges they face.
The next morning, the search is on for our camera roos.
Chris leads the way, listening for the cameras' VHF beep.
BEEPING
And before long, we find one of our crew.
She's just there. If you come... Just the other side. See her through there? Oh, yes.
She knows that we're here... Yeah.
..but she doesn't know that we're here to relieve her of her camera.
To get the camera off, Chris triggers the release.
OK, here we go.
And as she hops away, it comes loose.
There we go. Here it is!
Brilliant! Everything's gone to plan!
Here we go.
To get it back is just a massive, massive relief. Yes.
Is that a tear coming down? Yeah.
THEY LAUGH
Tears of joy and relief.
There will be when I watch the footage, I reckon.
GORDON LAUGHS Yeah.
With the first camera back, we successfully retrieve the others.
VHF BEEPS
So...? Whaa! CHRIS CHUCKLES
With any luck, they will show us what these resourceful roos
are surviving on here.
Time to take a look.
Here we go. This is the big moment,
the culmination of everyone's efforts.
Just over to the...over the roos.
STOMPING
Set to record at first light, when the roos are most active,
this individual is already on the move.
It's a really intimate view.
And as dawn breaks, we can see her joey is with her, too.
Oh, there you go! Aw! That's so sweet!
Oh! Oh, that's great! Oh, and the...! Returning the favour. Huh!
Oh, the little one licking the mother. Beautiful!
Oh, look at that!
Are you allowed to say cute, as a scientist? You are.
That is gorgeous.
Joeys are weaned at around 18 months old,
but they often stay close to their mums for months after.
Spending time alone with their mothers, like this one is,
rather than being in the larger group,
also means they have a better chance of survival.
Any head start is good for the youngsters here,
as our camera shows us just how poor this habitat is.
The headland may look like a well-kept lawn,
but there's little on offer here.
With over 200 roos in such a small area,
this grass has been grazed to the ground.
The density of animals also means where there is food, there's faeces.
A lot of the areas where they're grazing are contaminated.
There's a little piece of faecal matter right there, where she's grazing.
And that fits with what we're seeing in terms of the high levels of intestinal parasites.
Poor feeding grounds lead to poorly-conditioned animals.
And grazing here risks spreading disease and infection
amongst the population.
But then we get the footage Cathy has been hoping for.
One of our camera kangaroos hops on to the beach.
Oh, they're right out on the sand! On the beach! Oh, wow!
So this is those hopping marks that we can see...
Yeah. ..where they're moving on the beach.
At first, she nibbles on dune grass,
something Cathy has observed before.
Not a lot to eat there, though, is there? Yeah. Yeah.
But then, she moves further down the beach
and begins to forage.
Oh, yeah. Wow!
GULLS CRY
It's slim pickings amongst the pebbles and shells,
but it's food nonetheless.
And our cameras give Cathy the all-important opportunity
to see what they're eating.
I'm not a kangaroo, you may have noticed,
but that vegetation doesn't seem particularly nutritious.
It's kind of wispy and dry.
There's just a little bit of grass coming up in between the shells
and the stones that have washed up from the ocean.
And maybe that's because the grass is a little bit longer there, there's not a lot of it,
but, um...animals, other animals aren't there grazing with this animal,
so maybe there's less competition. Mm-hm.
This footage shows how these marginalised marsupials
really are doing everything they can to survive.
But grass and weeds on the shoreline
is not enough food to sustain them long term.
It all comes down to the way humans have modified the environment.
They can't move the way they normally would move in the environment.
I think for us to have a future, and for these animals to have a future,
it's about coexistence. It's about people and kangaroos
sharing that same space.
And hopefully, through this footage
and the other research that we're doing,
that we can, um...really try and figure out
how best to...to manage the landscape. Mm-hm.
After watching the footage,
Cathy wants to see changes in urban planning,
to ensure new roads and suburbs consider the needs of kangaroos
and enable them to move freely across the landscape.
This will not only help the kangaroos here at Coffs Harbour,
but many others living up and down this busy coastline.
Back in Adelaide, it's time to see if our cameras can identify
what the growing population of flying foxes here are feeding on.
Overnight, our filming flying foxes have been out on their errands
and are now back in the camp.
Chris is really hoping they've brought their cameras
home with them.
We're just driving back to the location this morning,
hoping to find the cameras that have been out overnight.
They're going to have been out over 24 hours.
So it's going to be really interesting to see how
it survived the night.
And, you know, is the release going to work?
By plugging in the VHF frequency of the camera's transmitter,
Chris and Terry manage to locate the first flying fox.
Not wanting to lose sight again,
Chris is quick to activate the release.
OK, triggering now.
Sending, released.
The camera is clear to see, glinting in the morning sun.
But as Chris hits release, the flying fox takes flight.
Don't fly away!
Oh, yes. Look at that!
Yes!
Woohoo!
Nice.
Wow.
Couldn't be happier than that.
Just as planned.
And with the rest of the cameras retrieved
just as smoothly, it's time to see
what our megabats' mini cameras reveal.
For Terry, it's the very first time he's seen or heard the footage
from the cameras.
Oh, gosh, a lot of people studying flying foxes
are going to be really fascinated to see this, I think.
And it's the first all-important reveal
of what this flying fox is going to feed on.
Looks like gum of some description there.
That might be easy to get that identified.
Yeah, I think so.
It's a South Australian blue gum, a different variety
to their usual east coast food.
This eucalyptus is an Adelaide native.
It's an encouraging sign that the flying foxes aren't
targeting crops and have instead adapted to a local species.
This close proximity to feeding,
we've never seen this sort of thing before.
It's reassuring to know that this flying fox hasn't gone
into any commercial fruit.
And we quickly learn that flying foxes don't spend time in one place
for very long.
WINGS BEATING
Oh, that sound is incredible, isn't it?
After a short flight, a new tree is selected and the flying fox
announces its arrival.
BAT SQUEAKS
So this is really interesting.
It looks like they're going from, just in a few minutes,
they've gone for three or four different feeding sites,
which is nothing that we've ever seen before.
We just think they're going to one area and probably stay in a tree
for a period of time.
But it looks like they're flying around every minute or two
to find some food.
And it's off again, and this time, we're in a different tree species.
It is technically a fruit tree, a Port Jackson fig,
but this is not a food crop.
It's an ornamental tree, commonly found in gardens and civic centres.
A short flight later, it's back in a native blue gum.
This is a surprising thing,
I think, just, you know, how quickly they're moving,
eating blossom to blossom.
But they clearly are eating it really quickly
and moving on.
And even though they can fly tens of kilometres a night,
this flying fox has chosen to stay close to the city.
And his back-mounted camera provides a great aerial perspective.
So, he's going over the road.
Isn't that amazing? This is extraordinary.
So that's a car park, I'm sure, like you said.
But I'd be really interested to know where it is.
With ornamental trees to feed on in the heart of the city,
this flying fox doesn't need to go far.
By first light, our filming flying foxes are back in the roost,
hanging alongside their neighbours.
So what do Wayne and Terry make of their first foray
into the flying foxes' night-time world?
I don't know whether I really had any full idea
of what we might actually see.
You know, this is incredible.
We're seeing flying foxes flying around and seeing
what they're doing,
like we've never seen it before.
Importantly, our cameras have revealed our flying foxes
at least, aren't targeting commercial fruit.
It suggests that grey-headed flying foxes have simply relocated
to Adelaide, not because of its outlying crops,
but because of the many other food resources on offer in the city.
The footage has also revealed unexpected insights
for Wayne and Terry.
They have certainly given us a great deal to work with.
You watch these animals from the ground and you try and imagine
what it's like and you see them feeding in trees, but...
..yeah, I would never imagine you would ever see that, you know,
from a bat's point of view.
It's just remarkable technology.
Our cameras have not only changed our understanding
of Adelaide's population, but of grey-headed flying foxes
as a species.
Their ability to relocate and adapt to new foods
are invaluable survival strategies.
Our animals with cameras adventures in Australia
have given our scientists insight into how we can help conserve
some of the country's unique and precious animals.
Identifying how diverse their habitat needs to be,
and how much space they need to live on this great continent.
In an ever-changing world, let's hope our footage can go some way
to safeguarding the future of these species
in this truly magical country.